Craig James calls Mike Leach a “bully” in latest campaign video

In an interview conducted by hard hitting reporter his daughter, former ESPN college football analyst Craig James finally gave a thorough explanation continued to spin the motivation behind his effort to remove Mike Leach as coach of Texas Tech following a squabble between Leach and James’ son, Adam.

James conveniently doesn’t get into any real specifics of the incident between Adam and Leach or his reported PR smear campaign to have Leach fired, but he does say bully three times and reinforces his commitment to supporting his family and standing up for what’s right.

“I did nothing more than support my son against a bully,” James said. “It was a bully act what he did, an evil act against Adam, he didn’t do it just once, but twice.

“There are no alleged. It’s under oath by doctors, trainers, and players who were there, that Mike ordered [Adam] to be put away in dark, solitary confinement twice, punishing him for having a concussion. Any parent I know would have done exactly what we did.

“All of these other things you’ve heard are lies and distractions about what a man did to a fellow human being. He wronged someone. All we did was support our kid. And anyone who doesn’t understand that, I don’t want their vote.”

When this incident was first reported, James was going off on Leach for locking his son in an electrical closet. Now, Leach just put the younger James in dark, solitary confinement… notice how the story is starting to change as time goes on? Adam James testified that Leach didn’t actually lock him in an electrical closet, and the elder James has to change his story now to keep up the narrative that Mike Leach is a very bad man. Now it appears James is trying to get the “bully” tag to stick to Leach.

The dust-up between James, Leach, Texas Tech, and ESPN has only grown more consequential over time as litigation, a Leach biography, the removal of Bruce Feldman from ESPN, and a supposed Friday Night Lights movie storyline all trace back to James vs. Leach.

Many are still awaiting answers as to what exactly unfolded but unfortunately this self serving campaign video really didn’t add much other than some more acrimony between Leach and James.

H/T to Ben F

About Joe Lucia

I'm the managing editor of Awful Announcing and the news editor of The Comeback. I also made The Outside Corner a thing for six seasons.